Oh for fuck’s sake… I know I don’t really do daily wistful career change decisions anymore, but I have one anyway. I’ve decided that I want to be a Washington Post Opinion column editor, because really it appears to be a job that requires doing nothing whatsoever but just printing anything handed to you by a pseudo famous writer regardless of how much sense it makes.
Ok, if it’s not clear I’m kinda liberal politically. I’m also kind of belligerent socially. Shocker huh? That said, even when I disagree with people, I like to read and give fair shake to their ideas. I’ll read stuff by conservative Republicans. I’ll read stuff by Men’s Rights Advocates. I’ll read stuff by Christian fundamentalists. And even though I pretty much disagree with all of their messages, sometimes I’ll say something like “ok, they do have a point on this part, so that’s worth thinking about if only to strengthen my world view against it” and sometimes they’ll even inform my world view on something. Life is kinda neat that way.
Ok, that said, George Will‘s column from the Washington Post today is titled “Colleges become the victims of progressivism.” For HOVA’s sake, if only this were true… I’m in college and if I could manipulate them with my progressive the world would be such a better place!
Anyway, I’m all for being provocative. And yeah, maybe you really do believe that rapes are “over reported” in college or that it somehow gives you a level of prestige because uh yeah, every young girl dreams of one day growing up to be a princess, married in a castle, and a rape victim… ok, fine… those are your beliefs. Great. You’re an asshole. But great.
And given his issues, honestly, I’m even torn on the idea of trigger warnings on college readings. I understand why people want them but as the guy who actually gets to assign those books that might be about horrific things that are traumatic to my students, I understand wanting to fight against it too.
Ok, so you know, sure… lots of stuff to argue about and have a dialogue about. Sounds good. Lets read the article and see what you have to say….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-college-become-the-victims-of-progressivism/2014/06/06/e90e73b4-eb50-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html
Are you fucking serious dude?!?!?!? Of all the possible stories that you could point to of women “crying wolf” on rape the example you pick is “she said no twice, but then I kept going and once I had her panties off and she gave up, she called it rape.” Seriously?
Literally, the only thing in the world that could possibly have been more rapey is if your example was “I’m sure she would have consented but she was all woozy from the Rohypnol I slipped in her drink.” I mean, you could have picked almost ANY he-said/she-said case in the history of date rape and it would have been LESS RAPEY than that.
Will isn’t even arguing “she probably said yes and changed her mind.” His argument is literally “she said no, twice… but not three times, what’s a boy to do? And the leftist Obama administration has made it possible to prosecute this young man.” Uh, dude… I’m not sure you know what rape means!
Academia has long championed progressivism. Now it is the left’s victim.
Is this dude in Washington? He’d better hope that I don’t run across him in any possible future visits to our nation’s capital. I will beat the ever loving crap out of his worthless puny behind with my cane! And the Washington Post had the unmitigated gall to publish that stupidity? Thank you for ruining a perfectly lovely June evening by sharing that lunacy! I am too old and infirm to deal with such as this! … carry on.
This worst (or best?) thing about this is that George Will is what passes for an intellectual on the right.
Well, I mean, he does have a Pulitzer. Regardless of my disagreements with him that’s an accomplishment. But seriously, I mean that’s the worst possible date rape case to use as an example of his point ever. Like there’s all kinds of stuff that he could have picked that at least could have made him make sense on some planet… the example he picked is literally exactly what most people who argue about trumped up rape charges claim never happens.
I particularly hate this article because he touches on one very important point (in my mind) that is almost certain to be overlooked as everyone focuses on all the stuff he got wrong. The “Preponderance of Evidence” standard for a criminal act is possibly the worst injustice I have seen in a decade (especially combined with the rules that prevent the accused from being confront the accuser or from being allowed an attorney).
Here’s my CSB:
One night, I was out at a local bar, getting absolutely shit-faced. Drunk beyond belief. My friend buying me drinks (that I would later discover to be vodka-Red Bull) one after another. I find myself making out with a woman at a bar. She want me to take her home. Ok, great, let’s go! We call a cab. 5 minutes later, she once again tells me she wants me to take her home, and I should call a cab. Ok, great, she’s completely blacked-out! So, cab gets there, I get her in, give the driver her address and some cash, and send her on her way, and I walk off to my own place. Why would I do such a thing? Because I don’t consider other human beings to be solely a means to my own pleasure.
So what if a guy’s too drunk to realize that the girl is too drunk? Well, I was fucked-up. Fucked-up hard. Had I been any drunker, I wouldn’t have been able to do very much, and I still would have been in a position to recognize that I should leave her alone, even if she was asking for it. Hey, I’m not the one who gave her the drinks (or whatever else she took that night). Hey, she was asking for it! Hey, I was messed up myself!
Also, he’s lying about the statistics; Biden has them right. Will willfully mixes stats for all sexual assault with stats about forcible rape, in order to come up with his numbers. I.e., it’s another “only ‘legitimate rape’ counts” story. Arm up with facts, because this guy is going to get quoted by every asshole out there.
You’re going about that wrong my friend. Journalism consists of a few lines of hoo-doo followed by attaching Twitter links from other “journalists” who tweeted their opinions.